The facilitation and promotion of enterprise mentoring is a core aspect of the IOEE’s work. The British Banking Association (BBA) is one of our valued mentoring partners and alongside them, the IOEE oversees an excellent matched mentoring programme. The 2015 Celebration in Mentoring IOEE/BBA was held in Birmingham to Celebrate the success of our mentors in the West Midlands and beyond.

The 2015 Celebration in Mentoring was an intimate event attended by some 30 individuals, including mentors, mentees and representatives of the IOEE and the BBA. Ruth Lowbridge of the IOEE presented a number of awards in recognition of the mentors’ and mentees’ hard work. Jaswant Sambhi of Lloyds Banking Group was named Mentor of the Year for the outstanding mentoring skills he has demonstrated. John McKenzie, also of Lloyds Banking Group, was named Mentor Champion of the Year.Since the programme’s inception John has worked brilliantly with his mentees and always been keen to lend his support to any events that the IOEE has hosted. He’s also someone who generously shares his experience with newly trained mentors. The title of Mentee of the Year went to Paulo Larkman who set up his business www.carlease247.com whilst being mentored by Keith Boxley of Barclays Bank. Paulo was also one of four business people who have benefited from mentoring and who stood up to share their experiences and let people know what having a mentor has meant to them. The other three individuals were: Tosca Lahari from Yelli Tube, who was mentored by HSBC’s James Uren; Elliot Goodger who runs Retro Records, a store specialising in vintage vinyl and who was mentored by Mentor of the Year Jaswant Sambhi; and Yvonne Donald of KakeandCupkakery who was mentored by Andrew Gooding of Lloyds Banking Group. Yvonne also made wonderful cupcakes for the event, which was an all-round success.